will see if the president answers. melissa: thank u., u. guys. lori: breaking news 30 minutes away from the first news conference in eight months. we will bring you his remarks live. melissa: the president will face a barrage of questions from the fiscal cliff negotiations to the consulate attack in libya to the general petraeus scandal, of course. so what should you be looking for? lou dobbs will be coming up. lori: why is this all coming up after the election? and president obama meeting with ceos at the white house a little later on after the press conference. he is looking for $1.6 trillion in tax hikes. how will he sell this one to business leaders still ahead? stocks selling off, wonder if it has nothing to do with the president's upcoming remarks. higher taxes, nobody like that.

especially in this crummy economy. starting off in the green. let's go to the full the new york stock exchange, cisco had been helping keep us green, but not so much now. nicole: the dow down three quarters of 1% packing up the losses we saw last week, getting any economic news. the stock market struggling overall, but still the geopolitical concerns. the president coming out to talk about taxes and such. still worried about the fiscal cliff to name a few. the nasdaq down half a percent actually slipped into correction territory off of the highs in september. and let's take a look bucking the trend, other names have been

hit hard, for example. here's a look at cisco systems coming out with the quarterly numbers, there is some good news there. lori: appreciate it. melissa: president obama's first news conference since his reelection. the white house and congress will attempt to work together, maybe, to find a compromise. peter barnes is at the white house. what do you think we can expect? >> i think we will hear a lot about petraeus, benghazi, general allen, the sex scandal, fbi, cia. all they have to do is look at yesterday's daily brief. two-thirds of it covered all of those subjects in about one third of tha it was on the fiscl cliff. carney answered some questions about it, and sounded repeated the president will try to be bipartisan trying to get a deal with congress. take a listen.

>> he also said he is not indented into every aspect of his plan. in order to reach an agreement everybody needs to compromise in the compromise is another message of the election he took his american people want action. >> the president getting out in his press conference after we heard from speaker john boehner and mitch mcconnell on their position because they will all be here at the white house on friday to get these talks kick started. melissa: thank you so much. lori: estevez houston with a news conference, president obama will be sitting down with a ceos to talk about solutions to avoid the fiscal cliff. rich edson in washington as well the latest developments. >> good afternoon.

wrapping in the 2:00 hour, leaves the east room, here to the west wing where he will meet with about a dozen ceos, half of whom are part of the export counselor, jobs council, or they are very familiar with the white house, in particular this white house. the discussion is of the opening offer on taxes, $1.6 trillion in tax increases, most of that tax increases on rate and deductions for those earning more than $250,000 per year. republicans wanted an overhaul of the entire tax system and create revenue through an overhaul of the tax code mostly by getting rid of deductions. saying no to higher rates. that is the risk the treasury secretary shot down. >> there's a lot of magical thinking about how much money you can raise from tax expenditures. a lot of people who've looked at that question and concluded i think incorrectly there is a

huge amount of resources, i think that is just not true. >> the white house is making it clear, they want rates increases in families earning more than 250, two that a spokesperson for john boehner releasing a statement saying the president wants to balance the approach, that is what we are often. their alternative is adding a small business tax to the current broken tax code which will cost jobs. back to you. lori: among the ceos you have just a mold, procter & gamble ceo, pepsico, anybody in particular often the top of your headset to challenge the president and keep him on his toes and keep the discussion lively? >> we certainly have when it comes on taxes not wanting to increase on that front. chevron ceo who has been here challlnged the president of

energy, so this would likely be a broader discussion. you really don't have any wall street ceos. ceo of american express is about it. the president will bring them in to further discussions if this continues. lori: he is not ready to confront them yet. thank you, rich. >> yeah. lori: he wants to keep it right here because after the meeting with the president, david cote joins liz claman and david asman. melissa: as we have been hearing the fiscal cliff is getting all the attention the next guest says what you should really be worried about is expanding consumer debt. anthony, why do you think this should be the focus right now? what are we talking about here? >> credit card debt, student

loans, private debt beyond consumer credit, mortgage debt. which is not deleveraging as fast as housing prices are. we will have a lot of people paying down debt, not spending money on the economy, and a lot of businesses that are going to be paying down their debt as opposed to expanding and hiring people. lori: is supposed to affect wealthier americans. others who don't have threshold of 250 for families but my point is, these are people that can handle a debt burden. so you can increase their taxes. >> some people to increase their taxes than they can handle it but a lot of those people in that category are businesses raising taxes on those businesses means they will pay down their debt even slower. we have nothing business is expanding. they can refinance that debt,

they haven't been borrowing. if you look at the last couple of years, entrepreneurship is on the decline. we know the job market is still really, really bad. revelatory uncertainty is a huge part of it. the broad sense of the economy is not going anywhere. raising taxes on individuals or businesses does not move us anywhere. the reason why is because there is the debt to pay down. the fiscal cliff is important on top of the fiv it that consumerd mortgage debt is really high. melissa: the big public companies refinancing is about at an all-time high right now. >> any business is run off of the household balance sheets. melissa: people were borrowing less, spending less because things are bad. >> we were falling until 2010, now $2.7 trillion in consumer debt.

which is the highest we have ever been at. melissa: how do you compare those two things? >> one thing we have to know is cutting spending, that is an important step that we have to go through period of austerity and lower the amount of spending the government does. it is going to have, that will have a short-term impact. some defense, people are going to lose their jobs, but the broader picture is for the next several years there is a lot of debt built up during the bubble that still has to go away. the fiscal cliff the first couple of months has any kind of negative impact on the economy is worth it to go through that. consumer debt and mortgage debt has a long way to go. lori: there was a huge disappointment, much less than expected, so you look at that perhaps as good news supporting your theory of consumer debt? >> to a certain degree. that is just like another

bubble. for certain degree we don't want people to just be going out and spending just to create a temporary bump in the economy, but the reality is waiting for that process of not spending that may be less money being spent on christmas presents. lori: where is the sweet spot? like chicken and the egg situation. what is your advice how much to save, how much to spend? >> that'll be different for every household. the simple fact of the matter is the past couple of days. lori: would she be spending versus saving? >> you should be saving about 30%. that will actually rack up more interest payments, that is not. it's maybe better to take the money and pay down your debt than to save in the near term. melissa: thank you so much for coming on.

melissalori: were moments away e president's news conference. waiting for remarks on the general petraeus scandal, military leadership in afghanistan, sex scandals left and right every time you open up a newspaper lately. melissa: so true. workers from portugal to greece, walking off the job to protest against spending cuts, tax hikes. and heading out to break, you can see gold and silver trading higher, but copper is lower by half a percentage point. we will be right back.

melissa: take a look at oil going for a ride. how concerned are traitors? >> there is nothing like the middle east. everything else has been a downer for oil. gold up today, a lot of of arrows today, gold because of a forecast by deutsche bank of $2000 gold. soybean prices have been down for quite some time. boosting demand. so that is a positive.

and so when the government over a law to make men and women equal. today we saw a bump in oil for the first time but missed the strike. >> we were bearish as most analysts were. looking at the u.s. overtaking saudi arabia, and then the weaker retail sales came in this morning and prices were quite depressed. the military strike from israel, how precise it is. speaker there you go, middle east. melissa: thank you so much. lori: stocks down 80 points before the president speaks to make a case for higher taxes.

nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange with more. nicole: higher taxes are something to mull over. a lot of people on wall street have postelection blues, and now fiscal cliff blues. look at the major market averages down 81-point head of the president's speech, the tech heavy nasdaq has moved into correction territory. let's take a look at two retailers. abercrombie and fitch and theirr aeropostel. they had strong sales abroad, strong margins. talk about the u.s. with healthy growth outlook there as well. and they look at aeropostle. they bought the online retailer would've just went onto from where our self with it. back to you.

the one breaking news. melissa: house subcommittee reports blaming the corzine position in the blast, headlines hitting right now. the representative choice sealed mf global faith. house republicans say mf global failed report. who better to break the news then charlie gasparino. >> i just sent everybody an e-mail. i have not read the report yet, it just came out. i did a lot of reporting under investigation leading up to it. they said yeah, jon corzine was sloppy, bad, but they stopped way short of calling him criminal. melissa: you don't seal the fa fate.

>they blame his decisions for te collapse. you generally don't go to jail for failing to disclose. you could be charged by the seccrity exchange commission, that is likely what he is going to do. it is a problem we did at the fox business network right off the bat when mf global went down in flames at this time last year. we knew that jon corzine did not set up the appropriate systems, control systems in place for transforming what mf global was, a sleepy brokerage that handles trade cleared for farmers and ranchers in the commodity market. something different which he transformed two, which is a hedge fund. he never put those pipes in place. reading this report, they will talk about that.

now here's the question. is that sort of stuff criminal negligence? i am telling you it is not. you do not go to jail for that. where would he go to jail? if you found jon corzine went out and knew that they were stealing company money, remember that was the whole thing. they were taken that and said go ahead, take that money. basically use it to pay off the credit, evidence that he knew that, he is toast, and telling you this report i have not read it, but does not have that. i know that for a fact. a congressional staf congressiod job, they went through thousands of documents on this. might be hundreds of thousands, they went through a lot of e-mails.

you know, nailing someone and putting them in jail is difficult stuff. my guess is, my very educated guess is they're not even close to it. what is fascinating about this is i was on the goldman sach goldman sachscall, one of the great takes away was congress in doing these fiscal cliff negotiations and buddhist negotiations, they don't care about a ratings downgrade. they're negotiating. here's the thing. ithat the u.s. has a split rate% going into aaa. you have the s&p, moody's aaa. moody's downgrades, it is not a

split rating, it is double-a or whatever. it ain't aaa. and guess what happens when you go to the lower rating. that is when your primitive contracts have an issue. said it would be really smart, the president was smart he would appoint bowles as secretary, but that probably will not happen. melissa: we will let you go so you can go and do that. thank you so much. lori: a rrminder we are minutes away from president obama's news conference. those remarks live as soon as they happen. and lou dobbs will help us walk up the press conference joining us next with what you should be listening for in the president's remarks. let's check the dollar. live pictures of civil unrest, violent protest in europe today,

so people are actually flying in to the dollar. we are back after this. with the fidelity stock, you can try strategies from independent experts and see wh criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividd-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks y want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.

melissa: breaking news right now. you are looking, this just came in. these are ceos arriving at the white house ahead of the fiscal cliff talks with president obama that are supposed to be kicked off at 2:45 eastern. we see some folks arriving here. we can see the chairman and ceo of xerox. i think somewhere somewhere we saw jeff immelt. i'm not sure. lori: a lot of middle-aged men. melissa: among the ceos that are coming today, the chairman and ceo of dow. robert mcdonald, proctor & gamble. alan mulally of ford. melissa: i don't know when she has time to run the company. lori: you made that point before. melissa: i don't know when

she is home. lori: the president will address the nation and we will carry it live for you. as you know, obama calling for the present $1.6 trillion in higher taxes getting rid of the bush-era tax cuts plus more tax reduction elimination. this should reduce debt by $4 trillion. more questions about general petraeus and benghazi scandal where we lost our ambassador to libya. so much going on, that happened that we're just learning about postelection. what is with the transparency of this administration or lack thereof? this is the president's first news conference in eight months. what should we be watching for? lou dobbs is here. i threw out all kinds of topics. >> you did indeed. those are all the topics and there are more that the president will be facing. he hasn't talked to the white house press corps as you said, more than eight months of the he has got a lot of catching up to do. and as the saying goes a lot of explaining.

the fact of the matter is this administration has stonewalled for nine weeks what happened in benghazi on september 11th. he will be confronted with that question. how he handles it will be fascinating. he has a sex scandal. he has a national security scandal wrapped up in one in the name of david petraeus. and a great number of questions about why he has begun what was to be this high-minded elevated effort to reach some sort of resolution on the fiscal cliff and he begins it with sticking out a $1.6 trillion number for the, for raising taxes. and it's, it's a, peculiar way to go about a cooperative, bipartisan, new fashion for a second term. melissa: no. it is like doubling down. this is where we're headed. i'm just going to raise taxes. here is the number. it's a big one. >> as you say it is a doubling down of the number that speaker boehner and he

agreed to this past summer, and then he raised by 50% in the waning moments what boehner thought was a deal. he is going to have to do better than that, as a negotiator and as the leader of the country. lori: which makes you understand why it has been eight months since the president's last press conference. i'm quite overwhelmed by all the late-breaking details on all these different stories. is there a common theme, lou? >> among four-star generals they obviously have too much time on their hands. lori: i set it up beautifully for that. melissa: lori is obsessed with the general petraeus story. >> indeed we should be because this is the number one spy in the country who was dumb enough to think he would not be spied upon. he was unfortunately so lacking in, in adherence to the army and west point code and, in absolutely disregarding his responsibilities, not just as a husband, not just as the head of the cia, but, as

a man who spent his entire career trying to protect the national interest and national security, to throw it away in just a moment of human weakness. melissa: several moments. i don't know. i mean --. lori: 27,000. melissa: main part of his job has to do with secrecy, right? you can't cover up your own successfully? you think you're not going to get caught at the end of the day? >> something we saw all see covering these folks over the course of our careers. hubris, arrogance, it confound and destroys and certainly only, only strong men and women are immune to it. lori: so much fun to talk about scandal and sex. what is going on -- >> but the fact is this could have immense impact on our economy. lori: that's what i was getting to. >> it could have immense impact on the direction of the nation. lori: do you think, because we also in our previous conversations talked about

how biased media is. do you think reporters will challenge the president on his tax policy? >> some of them will be doing so. the name ed henry comes to mind. there are a few others. but as you know --. melissa: that is the two minute warning the signal you just saw there. go ahead. >> the fact of the matter most will be complicit with this administration. they don't have to be managed from this white house because so many are frankly with the values, ideology, philosophy they have foresaken their job as a watchdog and are lap dogs. melissa: what do you think is the message from the president doubling down on the number and saying he wants 1.6 trillion? >> it is easy to get irritated to get into a negotiation at any point especially at beginning. 1.6, if he is negotiating that is one thing. if it is 1.6, take it or leave it he will preside over his own disasterous legacy. lori: seems like he written

off any hope of expanding the economy further than what it is. >> it's a shame. because we've seen this economy actually grow 25% over the course of the past two years under current marginal tax rates. for him to raise those tax rates, to risk 1.2 trillion as a result of sequestration cuts, another half billion or so, i love that, expression, in the bush tax cuts of 2001 and 3 is to throw another two million people on top of the 23 million out of work. it is to raise the unemployment rate into double digits. one doesn't know how high but most estimates put it there. within the course of the next six months. the man is, i think he means to be a leader. he certainly can't be that foolish. lori: what do you think takeaway -- >> by the way neither can john boehner, good point. what is the takeaway among the best solutions for the fiscal cliff among all the people you talk to? >> the most intelligent

thing to do here, i know a lot of people won't like this, to defer the decision until people come in with a new congress. we have a new congress coming in with the president beginning his second term and take at least section to nine months to resolve the tax --. melissa: here comes the president right now. first news conference since re-election. let's listen in. >> i hear you have some questions for me but, let me just make a few remarks at the top and then i will open it up. first i want to reiterate what i said on friday. right now our economy is still recovering from a very deep and damaging crisis. so our top priority has to jobs and growth. we've got to build on the progress that we've made because this nation succeeds when we've got a growing thriving middle class. that is the idea a the core of the plan that talked about on the campaign trail over the last year. rewarding manufacturers and small businesses that create

jobs here, not overseas. providing more americans the chance to earn the skills that businesses are looking for right now. keeping this country at the forefront of research, technology, and clean energy. putting people back to work rebuilding our roads, our brrdges and our schools, and reducing our deficit in a balanced and responsible way. now on this last item we face a very clear deadline that requires us to make some big decisions on jobs, taxes and deficits by the end of the year. both parties voted to set this deadline, and i believe that both parties can work together to make these decisions in a balanced and responsible way. yesterday, i had a chance to meet with labor and civic leaders for their input. today i'm meeting with ceo's of some of america's largest companies. and i will meet with leaders of both parties of congress before the week is out. because, there is only one way to solve these challenges. that is to do it together.

as i have said before, i'm open to compromise and i'm open to new ideas. and i've been encouraged over the past week to hear republican after republican agree on the need for more revenue from the wealthiest americans as part of our arithmetic if we're going to be serious about reducing the deffcit because when it comes to taxes there are two pathways available. option one, if congress fails to act by the end of this year, everybody's taxes will automatically go up, including the 98% of americans who make less than $250,000 a year. and the 97% of small businesses who earn less than $250,000 a year. that doesn't make sense. our economy can't afford that right now. certainly no middle class family can afford that right now. and nobody in either party says they want it to happen. the other option is to pass a law right now that would prevent any tax hike whatsoever on the first

$250,000 of everybody's income. and by the way, that means every american including the wealthyest americans get a tax cut. it means that 98% of all americans and 97% of all small businesses won't see their taxes go up a single dime. the senate has already passed a law like this. democrats in the hous

but, what he said was, even though he didn't give me his vote, he is giving me his support to move this country forward. and he said, the same to his republican representatives in washington. he said that, he will back each of us regardless of party, as long as we work together to make life better for all of us. and he made it clear that if we don't make enough progress he will be back in touch. so my hope, he wrote, is that we can make progress in light of personal party principles, special interest groups and years of business as usual. we've got to work together and put our differences aside. i couldn't say it better myself. that is precisely what i intend to do and with that,

let me open it up for your questions. and i'm going to start off with ben feller of ap. >> thank you, mr. president. can you assure the american people that there have been no breaches of national security or classified information in the scandal involving generals petraeus and allen? and do you think you as commander-in-chief and the american people should have been told that the cia chief was under investigatiin before the election? >> well, i have no evidence at this point from what i've seem that classified information was disclosed, that in any way would have had a negative impact on our national security. obviously there's an ongoing investigation. i don't want to comment on the specifics of the investigation. the fbi has its own protocols in terms how they

proceed and, i'm going to let director mueller and others examine those protocols and make some statements to the public generally. i do want to emphasize what i have said before. general petraeus had an extraordinary career. he served this country with great distinction, in iraq, in afghanistan and as head of the cia. by his own assessment he did not meet the standards that he felt were necessary as the director of cia with respect to this personal matter that he is now dealing with his family and with his wife and it's on that basis that ten dered his resignation and on that basis i accepted it. but i want to emphasize, from my perspective at least, he has provided this country an extraordinary service?

we are safer because of the work that dave petraeus has done and my main hope right now is he and his family are able to move on and that this ends up being a single side note on what has otherwise been an extraordinary career. >> what about voters, do they deserve to know? >> you know, again, i think you're going to have to talk to the fbi in terms of what their general protocols are when it comes to what started off as potential criminal investigation. one of the challenges here is that we're not supposed to meddle in, you know, criminal investigations and that's been our practice, and, you know i think that certain procedures that both the fbi follow or doj follow when they're involved in these investigations. that's traditionally been

how we view things in part because people are innocent until proven guilty. we want to make sure that we don't prejudge these kinds of situations and so, my expectation is that they followed protocols that they already established. general diehl. >> on the fiscal cliff you two years ago you wouldn't end extend the bush tax cuts, but at the end of the day you did. respectfully, sir, why should the american people and republicans won't believe you will cave again this time?. >> two years ago the economy was in a different situation. we were still very much in the early parts of recovering from the worst economic crisis since the great depression and ultimately we came together not only to extend the bush tax cuts but also a wide range of

policies that were going to be good for the economy at that point. unemployment insurance extensions, payroll tax extension. all of which made a difference and as part of the reason why we've seen now is 32 consecutive months of job growth and over 5.5 million jobs created and unemployment rate coming down but what i said at the time is what iment -- i meant, which this is a one-time proposition. what i have told leaders privately as well as publicly, is that we can not afford to extend the bush tax cuts for the wealthy. what we can do is make sure that middle class taxes don't go up. and so the most important step we can take right now, i think, the foundation for a deal that helps the economy, creates jobs, gives

consumers certainty which gives businesses confidence that they're going to have consumers during the holiday season, is that we right away, say 98% of the americans are not going to see their taxes go up. 97% of small businesses are not going to see their taxes go up. if we get that in place, we are actually removing half of the fiscal cliff. half of the danger to our economy is removed by that single step. and what we can then do is shape a process whereby we look attacks reform. which i'm ery eager to do. i think we can simplify the tax system. i think we can make it more efficient. we can eliminate loopholes and deductions that have a distorting effect on our economy. i believe that we have to continue to take a serious look how we reform our entitlements because health care costs continue to be the biggest driver of our

deficits. so, there is a package to be shaped and i'm confident that parties, folks of goodwill in both paaties can make that happen but what i'm not going to do is to extend bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% that we can't afford and according to economists will have the least positive impact on our economy. >> you have said that the wealthiest must pay more. would closing loopholes instead of raising rates for them satisfy you? >> i think that there are loopholes that can be closed and, we should look at how we can make the process of deductions, the filing process easier, simpler but when it comes to the top 2%, what i'm not going to do is to extend further a tax cut

for folks who don't need it which would cost close to a trillion dollars and it is very difficult to see how you make up that trillion dollars if we're serious about deficit reduction just by closing loopholes and deductions. the math tends not to work and i think it's important to establish a basic principle that was debated extensively during the course of this campaign. this shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. this was, if there was one thing that everybody understood was a big difference between myself and mr. romney, it was, when it comes to how we reduce our deficit, i argued for a balanced responsible approach and part of that included making sure that the wealthiest americans pay a little bit more. i think every voter out there understood that was an important debate and the majority of voters agreed with me. by the way, more voters agreed with me on this issue than voted for me. so we've got a clear majority of the american

people who recognize if we're going to be serious about deficit reduction we've got to do it in a balanced way. the only question now is, are we going to hold the middle class hostage in order to go ahead and let that happen? or, can we all step back and say, here's something we agree on. we don't want middle class taxes to go up. let's go ahead and lock that in. that will be good for the economy. it will be good consumer, take the edge off the fiscal cliff. and no, let's also then commit ourselves to broader package of deficit reduction that includes entitlement changes and includes potentially tax reform as well as willing to look at additional work we can do on the discretionary spending side. so i want a big deal. i want it comprehensive deal. i want to see if we can, you know, at least for the foreseeable future provide certainty to businesses and the american people so that we can focus on job growth,

so that we're also investing in the things that we need, but, right now what i want to make sure of is the taxes on middle class families don't go up and there is very easy way to do that. we could get that done by next week. okay. lori in. ontnefgro, telemundo. >> thank you, mr. president. on immigration reform the criticism in the past was that you did not put forth legislation with specific ideas and send it up to the hill. this time around you said this will be one of the top priorities for a second term. will you then send legislation to the hill? exactly what do you envision is broad immigration reform? does that include legalization program? and also, what lessons, if any, did democrats learn from this last election and the latino vote? >> well, i think what was up

credibly encouraging was to see significant increase in latino turnout. this is the fastest growing group in the country, and, you know, historically what you've seen latino vote at lower rates than the broader population. and that is beginning to change. you're starting to see a sense of empowerment and civic participation, that i think is going to be powerful and good for the country. and it is why i'm very confident that we can get immigration reform done. before the election i had given a couple interviews where i predicted that latino vote was going to be strong and that would cause some reflection on the part of republicans about their position on immigration reform. i think we're starting to see that already. i think that is a positive sign. this is not historically been a partisan issue. we've had president bush and john mccain and others who

have supported comprehensive immigration reform in the past. so we need to seize the moment. and my expectation is that we get a bill introduced and we begin the process in congress very soon after my inauguration. and in fact some conversations i think are already beginning to take place among senators and congressman and my staff about what would this look like? and when i say comprehensive immigration reform, it is very similar to the outlines of previous efforts of comprehensive immigration reform. i think it should include a continuation of the strong border security measures we've taken because we have to secure our borders. i think it should contain serious penalties for companies that are purposely hiring undocumented workers and taking advantage of them. and i think do think there should be a a pathway for legal status for those who are living in this country,

are not engaged in criminal activity, are here, simply to work. it's important for them to it is important for them to learn english. it is important for them to potentially pay a fine but, to give them the avenue whereby they can resolve their legal status here in this country i think is very important. obviously, making sure that we put into law what the first step that we've taken administratively dealing with the d.r.e.a.m. act kids is very important as well. one thing i'm very clear about, young people brought here through no fault of their own, who have gone to school here, pledged allegiance to our flag, want to serve in our military, want to go to school to contribute to our society, they shouldn't be under the cloud of deportation. we should give them every opportunity to earn their citizenship. there are other components

to it obviously. the business community continues to be concerned about getting enough high skilled workers. i am a believer if you have a ph.d in physics or computer science who wants to stay here and start a business here we shouldn't make it harder for them to stay here. we should try to encourage them to contribute to this society. i think that, the agricultural sector obviously has very specific concerns about making sure that they have got a workforce that helps deliver food to our tables. so there are going to be a bunch of components to it but i think whatever process we have needs to make sure border security is strong, needs to deal with employers effectively, needs to provide a pathway for the undocumented here, needs to deal with the dream act kids% and i think that is something we can get done. chuck todd. where is chuck? >> mr. president, i just want to follow up on both

ben's question and jessica' question. having to do with ben's question -- >> how about lori's question, you want to follow up too? >> no. i feel like you answered that one completely. are you withholding judgment whether you should have known sooner that there was a potential, there was an investigation into whether your cia director potentially, there was a national security breach with your cia director? do you believe you should have known sooner or withholding judgment until the investigation is complete on that front? the follow-up to jessica's question, tax rates. are you, is there no deal that the end of the year if tax rates for the top 2% aren't the clinton tax rates, period? no, ifs and or buts on that specific aspect of the fiscal cliff? >> i am, i am withholding judgment with respect to how the entire process

surrounding general petraeus came up. and, you know, we don't have all the information yet. but i want to say that i have a lot of confidence generally in the fbi. and they have got a difficult job and so i'm going to wait and see to see if there's any -- >> should have known? do you think in hindsight -- [inaudible] >> well, i mean, chuck, what i'll say is, if, it is also possible that had we been told, then you would be sitting here asking a question why were you interfering in a criminal investigation? so, you know, i think it best right now for us to see how this whole process unfolded. with respect to the tax rates i just want to emphasize, i am open to new ideas. if the republican counterparts or some democrats have a great idea for us to raise revenue,

maintain progressivety, make sure the middle class isn't getting hit, reduces our deficit, encourages growth, i'm not going to just slam the door in their face. i want to hear, i want to hear ideas from everybody. >> what about a red line? >> look, i believe this is solveable. i think that fair-minded people can come to an agreement that does not cause the economy to go back into recession. that protects middle class families. that focuses on jobs and growth and reduces our deficit. i'm confident it can be done. my budget frankly does it. i understand that i don't expect the republicans simply to adopt my budget that is not realistic. so i recognize that we'll have to compromise, as i said on election night, compromise is hard. and not everybody gets 100% of what they want and not

everybody will be perfectly happy. but what i will not do is to have a process that is vague, that says we're going to sort of, kind of raise revenue through dynamic scoring or closing loopholes that have not been identified. and the reason i won't do that because i don't want to find ourselves in a position six months from now or a year from now where lo and behold the only way to close the deficit is to sock it to middle class families, or to burden families that have disabled kids, or, you know, have a parent in a nursing home or, suddenly we've got to cut more out of our basic research budget that is the key to growing the economy in the long term. so that's my concern. i'm less concerned about red lines per se. what i'm concerned about is

not finding ourselves in a situation where the wealthy aren't paying more, or aren't paying as much as they should. middle class families one way or another are making up the difference. that's the kind of status quo that has been going on here too long and that's exactly what i argued against during this campaign and if there is one thing that i'm pretty confident about is the american people understood what they were getting when they gave me this incredible privilege of being in office for another four years. they want compromise. they want action. but they also want to make sure that middle class folks aren't bearing the entire burden and sacrifice when it comes to some of these big challenges. they expect folks at the top that are doing their fair share as well. that will be my guiding principle during these negotiations but more importantly during the next four years of my administration.

nancy. >> thank you, mr. president. mr. president, on election night you said that you were looking forward to speaking with governor romney, sitting down in the coming weeks to discuss ways that you would could work together on this nation's problems? have you extended the invitation, has he accepted and what ways do you think you can work together? >> we haven't scheduled something yet. i think everybody forgets that the election was only a week ago and i know i have forgotten. i forgot on wednesday. so, i think everybody needs to catch their breath. i'm sure that governor romney is spending some time with his family and my hope is before the end of the year that we have a chance to sit down and talk. you know, there are, certain aspects of governor romney's record and his ideas that i think could be very helpful

and, well, to give you one example, i do think he did a terrific job running the olympics and, you know, that skill set of trying to figure out how do we make something work better applies to the federal government. there are a lot of ideas that i don't think are partisan ideas but are just smart ideas about who how can we make the federal government more customer-friendly. how we make sure we're consolidating programs that are duplicative. how can we eliminate additional waste. he presented some ideas during the course of the campaign that actually agree with and so it would be interesting to talk to him about something like that. there may be ideas that he has with respect to jobs and growth that can help middle class families that i want to hear. so, i'm not, either

prejudging what he is interested in doing, nor am i suggesting that i've got some specific assignment but what i want to do is get ideas from him and see if, see if there is ways we can potentially work together. >> what it comes to your relationship with congress one of the most frequent criticisms we heard over the past few years from members on both sides you haven't done enough to reach out and build relationships. are there concrete ways that you plan to approach your relationships with congress in the second term? >> look, i think there is no doubt that i can always do better and so i will, you know, examine ways that i can make sure to communicate my desire to work with everybody so long as it is advancing the cause of strengthening our middle class an improving our economy. you know, i've got a lot of good relationships with folks both in the house and

in the senate. i have a lot of relationships on both sides of the aisle. it hasn't always manifested itself in the kind of agreements that i would like to see between democrats and republicans. and so, i think all of us have responsibilities to see if there are things we can improve on. i don't exempt myself from needing to, you know, do some self-reflection and see if i can improve our working relationship. there are probably going to be still some very sharp differences and, as i said during the campaign there are going to be times where there are fights and i think those are fights that need to be had but what i think the american people don't want to see is a focus on the next election instead of a focus on them and i don't have another election and michelle and i were stalking -- talking last night about what an incredible honor and privilege it is to be put in

this position and there are people all across this country, millions of folks had worked so hard to help us get elected but there are also millions of people who may not have voted for us but are also counting on us and we take that responsibility very seriously. i take that responsibility very seriously. and i hope and intend to be even better president in the second term than i was in the first. joan than carl. -- jonathan karl. >> thank you, mr. president. senator john mccain and senator lindsey graham both said today they want to have watergate style hearings on the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi and said that if you nominate susan rice to be secretary of state they will do everything in their power to block her nomination as senator groom said, he simply doesn't trust ambassador rise after what she said about benghazi.

i would like your reaction to that. would those threats deter you from making nomination like that? >> first of all i'm not going to comment on various nominations that i will put forward to fill out my cabinet for the second term. those are things that are still being discussed. but let me say specifically about susan rice. she has done exemplary work. she has represented the united states and our interests in the united nations with skill, and professionalism, and toughness, and grace. as i have said before, she made an appearance at the request of the white house in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her. if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me.

and i'm happy to have that discussion with them but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador, who had nothing to do with benghazi? and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and besmirch her reputation? is outrageous. and, you know, we're after an election now. i think it is important for us to find out exactly what happened in benghazi and i'm happy to cooperate in any ways that congress wants. we have provided every bit of information that we have and we will continue to provide information and we've got a full-blown investigation and all that information will be disgorged to congress. and i don't think there is any debate in this country when you have four americans

killed that's a problem and we've got to get to the bottom of it and there needs to be accountability. we've got to bring those who carried it out to justice. ing they won't get any debate from me on that. but when they go after the u.n. ambassador, apparently because they think she is an easy target, then they have got a problem with me. and should i choose, if i think that she would be the best person to serve america, in the capacity of the state department, then i will nominate her. okay. ed henry. >> want to take chuck's lead and ask a very small follow-up which is whether you feel you have a mandate not just on taxes on a range of issues because of your

decisive victory. i want to say based on what john asked, if they want to come after me, come after me. i want to ask about the families of four americans killed. sean smith's father ray, believes his son called 911 for help and they didn't get it. and i know you have said you grieved for these four americans that it is being investigated but the families have been waiting for more than two months. so i would like for you to address the families if you can. on 9/11 as comb mannedder in chief did you issue any orders to try to protect their lives? >> ed, i'll address the families not through the press. i will address the families directly, as i already have and we will provide all the information that is available about what happened on that day. that's what the investigation is for. but, as i said, repeatedly, if people don't think that we did everything we can to

make sure that we saved the lives of folks who i sent there, and who were carrying out missions on behalf of united states, then you don't know how our defense department thinks or our state department thinks or our cia thinks. their number one priority is obviously to protect american lives. that is what our job is. now --. >> [inaudible]. >> ed, i will put forward, i will put forward everybody bit of information that we have. i can tell you that immediately upon finding out that our folks were in danger, that my orders to my national security team were, do whatever we need to do to make sure they're safe. and that's the same order that i would give anytime that i see americans are in danger, whether they're civilian or military, because that is our number one priority. with respect to the issue of mandate, i've got one

mandate. i've got a mandate to help middle class families and families that are working hard to try to get in the middle class. that is my mandate. that is what the american people said. they said, work really hard to help us. don't worry about the politics of it. don't worry about the party interests. don't worry about the special interests. just work really hard to see if you can help us get ahead because we're working really hard out here and we're still struggling a lot of us. that is my mandate. i don't presume that because i won an election that everybody suddenly agrees with me on everything. i'm more than familiar with all the literature presidential overreach in second terms. we are very cautious about that. on the other hand, i didn't get reelected to just bask in re-election. i got elect to do work, on

behalf of american families and small businesses all across the country who are still recovering from a really bad recession, but are hopeful about the future. and i am too. the one thing that, i said during the campaign, that maybe sound like a bunch of campaign rhetoric but now that the campaign is over i will repeat it and hopefully you guys will really believe me. when you travel around the country you are inspired by the grit and resilience and hard work and decency of the american people, and it just makes you want to work harder. you meet families who are, have overcome really tough odds and somehow are making it and sending their kids to college and, you meet young people who are doing incredible work and in disadvantaged communities because they believe in the

american ideal and should be available for everybody and, you meet farmers who are helping each other during tools of drought and and meet businesses that kept their doors open during the recession even though the owner didn't have to take a salary. what whether you talk to these folks you say man, they deserve a better government than they have been getting. though deserve all of us in washington to be thinking every single day, how can i make things better for them? which isn't to say everything we do is going to be perfect or there aren't just going to be some big tough challenges that we have to grapple with but, i do know the federal government can make a difference. we're seeing it right now on the jersey coast and in new york. people are still going through a really tough time. the response hasn't been perfect but it's been

aggressive and strong and fast and robust and a lot of people have been helped because of it. that's a pretty good metaphor for how i want the federal government to operate generally and i will do everything i can to make sure it does. christie parsons. hey. >> thank you, mr. president. and congratulations by the way. >> thanks. >> one quick follow-up -- >> when i was running for state senate. >> that's right, i was. >> christie and i go back aways. >> i never seen you lose. i wasn't looking that one time. >> there you go. >> one quick follow-up and i want to ask you about iran. i just want to make sure i understood what you said. can you envision any scenario which we do go off the fiscal cliff at the end of the year? and on iran, are you preparing a final diplomatic push here to resolve the nuclear program issue and are we headed toward

one-on-one talks? >> obviously we can all imagine a scenario where we go off the fiscal cliff. if, if despite the election, if despite the ink todayers of going over the fiscal cliff and what that means for our economy, that there's too much stubbornness in congress, that we can't even agree on giving middle class fammallies a tax cut then middle class families will have a pretty good tax hike. that will be a rude shock for them. i suspect will have a big impact on the holiday shopping season, which in turn will have an impact on business planning and hiring and we can go back into recession. it would be a bad thing. it is not necessary. so, i want to repeat. step number one we can take

in the next couple of weeks, provide certainty to middle class families,. 98% of families who make less than $250,000 a year. 97% of the small businesses their taxes will not go up a single dime next year. give them that certainty right now. we can get that done. we can then set up a structure whereby we are dealing with tax reform, closing deductions, closing loopholes, simplifying, dealing with entitlements, and i'm ready to, willing to make big commitments to make sure we're look locking in the kind of deficit reductions that stablize our deficit, start bringing it down, start bringing down our debt. i'm confident we can do it. it's, and look, i've been living with this for a couple of years now. i know the math pretty well and, it's, it really is arithmetic. it is not calculus. there are tough things that

have to be done but there is way of doing this that does not hurt middle class families. that does not hurt our seniors. doesn't hurt families with disabled kids. allows us to continue to invest in those things that make us grow like basic research and education, helping young people afford going to college. as we have already heard from some republican commentators, a modest tax increase on the well think is not going to break their backs. they will still be wealthy. and it will not impinge on business investment. zoo we know how to do this. in is matter whether or not we come together and go ahead and say, democrats and republicans we're both going to hold hands and do what is right for the american people and i hope that is what happens. with respect to iran, i, i very much want to see a

diplomatic resolution to the problem. i was very clear before the campaign. i was clear during the campaign and i'm now clear after the campaign. we're not going to let iran get a nuclear weapon. but, i think there is still a window of time for us to resolve this diplomaticly. we've imposed the toughest sanctions in history. it is having an impact on iran's economy. there should be a way in which they can enjoy peaceful nuclear power while still meeting their international obligations and providing clear assurances to the international community that they're not pursuing a nuclear weapon. and so yes, i will try to months to see if we can open up a dialogue between iran and not just us but the international community but see if we can get this thing resolved. i can't promise that iran will walk through the door they need to walk through but that would be very much the preferable option. >> under what

circumstances -- [inaudible] ? >> i won't talk about the details and negotiations but i think it is fair to say that we want to get this resolved and we're not going to be constrained by diplomatic niceties or protocols. if iran is serious about wanting to resolve this, they will be in a position to resolve it. >> at one point, just prior to the election there was talk, talks might be imminent? >> that was not true. and it's not, it's not true as of today. okay? just going to knock through a couple others. mark landers. where is mark? there he is. right in front of me. >> thank you, mr. president. in his endorsement of you a few weeks ago mayor bloomberg said he was motivated by the belief that you would do more to confront the threat of climate change than your opponent. tomorrow you're going up to new york city where you're going to, i assume see people who are still

suffering the effects of hurricane sandy which many people is say is further evidence of how a warming globe is changing our weather. what specifically do you plan to do in a second term to tackle the issue of climate change and do you think the political will exists in washington to pass legislation that could include some kind of a tax on carbon? >> you know, as you know, mark, we can't at attribute any particular weather event to climate change. what we do know is the temperature around the globe is increasing. faster than was predicted even 10 years ago. we do know that the arctic ice cap is melting, faster than was predicted even five years ago. we do know that there have been extraordinarily, there have been extraordinarily

large number of severe weather events here in north america but also arrund the globe. and i am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior and, carbon emissions, and as a consequence i think we've got an obligation to future generations to do something about it. now in my first term we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars and trucks. that will have an impact. that will take a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere. we doubled the production of clean energy which promises to reduce the utilization of fossil fuels for power generation. and we continued to invest in potential breakthrough technologies that could further remove carbon from our atmosphere. but we haven't done as much as we need to. so what i'm going to be

doing over the next several weeks, next several months having a conversation, a wide-ranging conversation with scientists, engineers, and elected officials to find out what can, what more can we do to make short-term progress in reducing carbons and then, working through an education process that i think is necessary, a discussion, a conversation, across the country about what realistically can we do long term to make sure that this is not something we're passing on to future generations that will be very expensive and very painful to deal with. i don't know what, what either democrats or republicans are preparedded to do at this point because, you know, this is one of

those issues that is not just a partisan issue. i also think there are regional differences. there is no doubt that for us to take on climate change in a serious way would involve making some tough political choices and you know, understandably i think the american people right now have on about so focused and will continue to be focused on our economy and jobs and growth that, you know if the message is many so how we're going to ignore jobs and growth simply to address climate change i don't think anybody it going to go for that. i won't go for that. if on the other hand we can shape an agenda that says we can create jobs, advance growth, and make a serious dent in climate change and be an international leader i think that is something the american people would support. so, you know, you can expect that you will hear more from me in the coming months and

years about how we can shape an again today that goorners bipartisan support and helps move this agenda forward. >> sounds like you're saying -- [inaudible] >> that i'm pretty certain of. and, look, we're still trying to debate whether we can just make sure that middle class families don't get a tax hike. let's see if we can resolve that. that should be easy. this one's hard. but it's important because, you know, one of the things that we don't always factor in are the costs involved in these natural disasters. we just put them off as something that is unconnected to our behavior right now and, i think what, based on the evidence we're seeing is that what we do now is going to have an impact and a cost down the road if, we don't do something about it.

all right. last question, mark. where is mark? >> thank you, mr. president. the assad regime is engaged in a brutal crack down on its people. france has recognized the opposition coalition. what would it take for the united states to do the same and is there any point at which the united states would consider arming the rebels? >> you know, i was one of the first leaders i think around the world to say assad had to go in response to the incredible brutality that his government displayed in the face of what were initially peaceful protests. obviously the situation in syria is deteriorated since then. we have been extensively engaged with the international community as well as regional powers to help the opposition. we've committed to hundreds of millions of dollars of

humanitarian aid to help folks inside of syria and outside of syria. we are constantly consulting with the opposition how they can get organized so that they're not splintered and divided in the face of the onslaught from the assad regime. we are, in very close contact with countries like turkey and jordan, that immediately border syria and have an impact and obviously israel which is having already grave concerns as we do about, for example, movements of chemical weapons that might occur in such a chaotic atmosphere and that could have an impact not just within syria but on the region as a whole. i'm encouraged to see that the syrian opposition created an umbrella group that may have more cohesion than they have had in the past. we're going to be talking to them, my envoys will be

traveling to various meetings that are going to be taking place with the international community and the opposition. we consider them a legitimate representative of the aspirations of the syrian people. we're not yet prepared to recognize them as some sort of government in exile but we do think that it is a broad-based representative group. one of the questions that we're going to continue to press is making sure that opposition is committed to a democratic syria, an inclusive syria, a moderate syria. we have seen extremist elements insinuate themselves into the opposition and you know one of the things that we have to be on guard about, particularly when we start talking about arming opposition, figures is, that we're not indirectly putting arms in the hands of folks who would do americans harm or do israelis harm or

otherwise engage in actions that are detrimental to our national security. so we're constantly probing and working on that issue. the more engaged we are, the more we'll be in the position to make sure that, that we are encouraging the most moderate, thoughtful, elements of the opposition that are committed to inclusion, observance of human rights and working cooperatively with us over the long term. all right. thank you very much. >> [inaudible]. >> president obama wrapping up the first news conference since reelected, quite frankly since march. this is the first time the president has taken questions from the press. said a rot lot of things, a lot of ground covered. benghazi being part of the big issues right now

president finishing up about to talk to ceos about the fiscal cliff. his mandate to help the middle class i found that considering the wealthy who were supporting his campaign going into this election. he was asked questions about immigration, climate change. again david petraeus scandal and benghazi. of course first question out of the gate, the reporters kept coming back to that as well. the fiscal cliff, what is going to happen? president obama saying save the middle class. extend the bush tax cuts. rich edson at the white house right now. rich, one of the other things he said that the cleanup for superstorm sandy was fast and aggressive. i guess he hasn't been to breezy point or staten island recently because, man, it is still a mess there. >> he heads to new york to survey damage but i think

what we got is an opening for compromise. i will take a look attacks reform and serious look at earn titlements. we don't have many details on that. we're at the stage of negotiations where neither side is providing many details just the willingness where you are willing to go on this? one of the questions people are asking, are you president obama, firm on commitment tax rates must go up on those earning $250,000 a year. that is the signal we had gotten from the white house press secretary. we had not got that from the president himself. he showed a little wiggle room there. take a listen. >> i am open to new ideas if republican counterparts or some democrats have a great idea for us to rise revenue, maintain progressivety, make sure the middle class is not getting hit, reduces our deficit, encourages growth. i'm not going to slam the door in their face. i want to hear ideas, i want

to hear ideas from everybody. >> tracy, he was asked twice, are rates going up on 250 and above? is that a red line for you? he would not go there. instead that was answer he provided. though he did say the republican position of overhauling the tax code just getting this revenue through cutting deductions and economic growth, he says the math doesn't seem to work there. so it is not exactly like we have total agreement between the two sides but at least some progress, incations perhaps we could actually get a deal done though we're very far from that point. the president will walk across the white house complex. headed to the east wing from the west wing coming from the east side of the white house. we've got enarrivals from a number of ceos. mike duke of wal-mart. jeff immelt came through. a handful of ceos waiting for president obama as he heads to the west wing. we'll get him on the way out. maybe this time he will actually say something. back to you. tracy: rich, that will be an

interesting around because again the president says his mandate is to help the middle class. what about, you know, wall street? what about the first that helped him get reelected? he essentially saying i'm done with you, thanks for your money. >> well, you know that actually has been some of the questions here. how come we're not seeing any wall street representation at this meeting. the white house insist that is the president continues conversation. we'll have conversations with representatives of wall street. you know, look the message of the president's campaign was to help the middle class. he mentioned at least a dozen times how he can help the middle class. that is what helped him get elected. he is protects those from tax increases, driving that line home. watch tax increases on 250 or above. wants wiggle room how that will be done and that seems to move the ball here in washington. tracy: 250 and above is not either in stone.

i don't think he mentioned number during the press conference. based on what you're saying that number could be different as well at the end? >> number 2%, translates 250 above. there is all speculation how you get this deal done? there are democrats who say million dollars and above, especially democrats from wealthier states. tracy: rich edson down in d.c., thank you very much. as rich mentions all the ceos walking in. president obama meeting with ceo's today. he will be in new york tomorrow surveying the damage. i think he is in for a rude awakening. he has his congressional meeting on friday as well. let's talk what happened with the stock market. about 40 minutes in, the market starts to fall. we hit a session low of 124 on the dow. sure enough he says, i'm going to take one last question. we see the market tick up, start moving back up a little it about. let's get to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. interesting, right, nicole? that the second he said i will take one more we start to see it retreat. >> it was interesting, that

the market really has been to the downside. when you ask any trader on wall street why we're down, whether 70, 90. today we were as low as become 125 points why are we down? we are down when you walk this floor because everybody is worried about the fiscal cliff. and i know that the president now is talking about he is open to new ideas and open to compromise. and that's great. ultimately everyone hopes the two sides can come together. people i talk to here on wall street but you can not deny the fact that this market has been selling off and continues to do so. you're not seeing people stepping in and buying saying this is the greatest buying opportunity ever. on the contrary, people are trying to wait to see if there is a nice sharp bottom. s&p 500, which is that 1356 right now, more than half of it is in correction territory. the nasdaq today is in correction territory. let's take a look at the dow.

it is down 100 points. don't forget that we had a 300 going down day. the market is nervous right now. we are down .6%. the majority of the dow components are well into the red. hewlett-packard, mcdonald's, a few names that we are trying to hold on. the rest are right across the board. tracy: thank you so much, nicole petallides. the s&p 500 sitting at a 60% retracement level between the highs of september and the lows of last summer. we are sitting right there. we are teetering and god only knows which way this thing will fall in president obama kicked off his news comments. he said the top priorities are jobs and growth. joining me now is wells fargo economist, richard. you focus on the middle class. extending the tax cuts. will that make a difference? >> for the economy?

tracy: yap. >> absolutely. the fiscal cliff is a big deal. we are talking about a 3.5 up to 4% gdp in 2013 preventing that from happening. if we prevent taxes from rising under $250,000, that would go a long ways towards preventing the full brunt of the fiscal cliff from playing out. additionally, i would add that if you are really worried about the impact of taxes on the economy, it is unambiguously true that the people that's that spend the largest portions of income are down the income scale. to the extent that you have to go for half of the low instead of a whole loaf of bread to revert configuring in such a way, that's what you have to do a. tracy: my concern is that the

wealthy got there because they are smart. smart people are going to shelter their money. do a lot of things that the so-called revenue they think they are going to garner from raising taxes on the rich -- it's not going to be there. >> there is always the opportunity for some kind of tax avoidance. income taxes are captured through withholding schedules. you have to be pretty crafty. what else is being done throughout the rest of the tax code. very affluent people have been able to shelter their income from taxation. for example, mitt romney is taking advantage of carried interest and capital gains. the question is does any capital gain affect those elements of the code as well, or is it isolated so that tax avoidance is incredible. tracy: i think that smart people stay smart for a lot of reasons. they are not thieves, they are just smart.

let's talk about the economic numbers that we got today. we got retail sales going down. everyone is blaming hurricane sandy. is it really hurricane sandy or more economic malaise? people are nervous. we have the holidays coming. i'm not sure people will spend big time. >> i don't think that hurricane sandy is the whole story. to understand, you have to look back a couple of months. we had very strong results in august and september. in that regard, it is not unusual to give back something after a 12% rate of increase in each of those two months. additionally, i don't think i share your concerns. have a look at the household sector on balance, consumer confidence, for example, is now the highest level it has been in about five years. well is rising. we lost $16 trillion during the crash. the we have recovered at about 13 billion over the past three years. tracy: but i don't really have

access to that well. i am speaking from personal experience. it's not like i could refinance my home and put in a new kitchen. >> absolutely. you are right. credit conditions remained stringent by historical standards. but if you ask yourself where that is going, the evidence looking back has been that credit conditions have remained very tight. but directionally, they are easing up. wealth is going in the right direction. that is offsetting the wealth effect, but it is easing rather than tightening. finally, the most important things is the labor market. while everyone should be be disappointed with the results come in unless the pace of job growth has been picking up. that is where people draw most of their income and ultimately spending from. tracy: i don't share your optimism. you are right. but i hope they prove me wrong. and i hope you have a jolly marry holiday season as well. we will come back and duke it

out. thank you, sir. >> my pleasure. tracy: breaking news. oil closing at $92.36 per barrel. peter barnes is wet inside the presidents news conference and he joins us with more. i didn't think they would ever let you out? watermark they did. i want to highlight the big takeaways for me. i know you talked about it with rich just a few minutes ago, which was the top tax rate that the president might be willing to live with in some kind of deal on the fiscal cliff. and he was given the opportunity, a specific opportunity, a direct question on whether or not he would require or demand that the tax rates on the wealthy return to the levels of the clinton administration. going up from 35% to 39.6%. he declined to draw the red

line. but he did suggest that higher tax rates on the wealthy at some level, that they could be or should be part of the deal. take a listen. >> when it comes to the top 2%, what i'm not going to do is to extend further a tax cut for folks that don't need it, which would cost close to a trillion dollars. it is very difficult to see how you make up that trillion dollars. if we are serious about deficit reduction, just by closing loopholes and deductions. the math tends not to work. reporter: all of us ahead of his meeting with congressional leaders, including republican congressional leaders here on friday. this negotiating through the media, it continues. tracy: peter barnes, thank you for speaking out to talk to us. all right, gerri willis is biting her nails to talk right now.

we have enough to say about this news conference. you disagree, as i did too. gerri willis from "the willis report." there is the sense that people are thinking he is going to compromise our president on the fiscal cliff. you have that same feeling? >> well, i've been watching and waiting. i assume there would be some middle ground there. to him, the middleground as i don't expect people to accept this -- i don't expect them to accept my budget. democrats did not accept your budget. much less the gop. somebody needs to teach the president how to offer an olive branch. that has not happened. i know he starts every comment saying that he wants compromise and he wants to sit down with house republicans. but when you listen to the whole statement, you can't help but take away that i have my position, i won the election, it's my way or the highway.

which comes to the point that i think bothers me the most, the mandate to help the middle-class. what about the rest of the country that sits on both sides? gerri: 250,000 in this area and other parts of the country, if you are a family with 250,000, that is median income. that is the middle of the income stream. no doubt about it. i think a lot of people out there from the tone of the president's comments, he thinks the recovery is already here or operating right now. but let's not forget, and velazquez did not make this point, 23 million americans underemployed or not employed. employment problems are not fixed by a longshot. we still have, i believe it's one in five americans on food stamps right now. we are still suffering. the whole idea and start january january 1 with a whole stream of income taxes and new taxes on investment and income, you put

it very well. a lot of smart people who can afford an expensive accountants are going to make sure that they don't pay that. where will we be at the end of the day? tracy: lou dobbs earlier said they should come visit until the new congress comes in. i don't think people should be worried if they do. taxes are retroactive. it will solve this before it becomes an issue. when you think on this? gerri: i think i will be completely against that. but listening to this, it is really the only option. we put something in place by the end of the year. it is temporary in nature. we go back, and we do tax reform. that is what everybody wants. the left and right, the right, people in the middle, they want simplified tax code. the one that everyone can understand. you know the rules are and you don't have to hire a million people, a lawyer and an accountant and everyone also tell you how to fix it be one i will go along with you be to we can fix it.

tracy: give me 10 minutes down there. "the willis report" is at 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. i presume he will talk more about this. gerri: there will be a little discussion. we are also talking about the long island power authority and what is going on there. their ceo just resign. they are a monopoly, my friends, they are run by the by the government. you want to know why it didn't go well there? i just told you. tracy: they will have definite words for you, gerri willis. thank you very much. coming up, we will have more on the president's news conference. live from the pits of the cme. a commodities fair as our president was talking. but first, let's take a look at the 10 and 30 year treasuries. unchanged. 1.59%. thirty or is not an unchanged as well. 2.73%. we will be right back.

reporter: i am lori rothman with your fox news business brief. the dow was down 110 points. the federal reserve watching a new online program. next month, qe-4.

all in effort to increase job growth. the purchases will be intended to lower long-term borrowing costs and curb spending and strengthen the economy. the hope is that more hiring will follow. the hottest item this holiday season might be the gift card. the national retail federation expects gift card sales to hit a record $28 billion. men will be giving out more gift cards, of course. spending an average of $172, compared with the $143 spent by women. we are giving you the power to prosper at fox business network tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

music is a universal language. but when ias in an accident... i was worried the health care system spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get where i'm from. and tools to estimate what my care may cost. so i never missed a beat. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. tracy: the dow jones is down 112 points. we are heading down to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. reporter: we are seeing the dow down 111 points. when you think about this a lot?

you actually think that you are looking at the next level and there is a point to buy? >> if you look at the next couple of weeks, we will go a little bit lower and then we start to turn higher. for things to watch. one, the uncertainty. we need to see progress on a bipartisan deal. the next thing is the euro. that will indicate stress in europe. if we can find some stately station, that's good. technology represents 20% of the s&p. okay, so those three things are important. so we need to to find some stability to leave this higher. 1350 for the s&p, 1200 for the dow. we are close, not quite there. reporter: that is where mark newton will be looking to pick them up. tracy: thank you so much, nicole petallides.

see you in 15 minutes. oil rebounding today is a fine support from the tension in the oil-rich middle east. the rise in inventory forcing oil at a loss for the third straight session. jet black in the pits with the latest at the cme. whether the markets think about the president's press conference? reporter: if you are talking about the commodities today, everything is out. but we can't give the president credit for that. let's take a look at the board. the movers out here -- as you point out, for the upside, oil. every time something happens in the middle east, you see what that happens to be. and gold is up. coffee beans and cocoa. those are up-to-date. can we give president obama credit for this?

>> there is good reason why those things are rallying. we would like to give the president credit. reporter: when we watched the president, what did you think? >> i think it is just rhetoric. until we see some action, he is not worried about what things will be like. all this waiting to see action and not just words. reporter: very good, thank you for coming up in the booth. we have a big screen appear. the traders all get to watch fox business. it's pretty cool. tracy: that's very cool. excellent stuff. thank you, jeff. we love scott and his awesome projects. coming up next, retailers making big moves today. sandra smith is on that. and first, let's take a look at the winners and losers as we head out. the dow is down 110 points. nasdaq winners, cisco systems up 5.5%. and staples, of almost 3%.

we will be right back.

tracy: welcome back. the dow is still down 109 points. we hit lows while the president was speaking. the s&p 500 is sitting right at that 50% retracement level. basically between the eyes eyes of september and the lows of last summer.

as nicole petallides and her guests pointed out, it will probably follow little lower. you could get out and buy. this leads us to sandra smith. big names like limited brands and williams-sonoma. big earnings. our people shopping? sandra: if they are going to keep buying the matter what. they are going to put all this into the high-end retailers. they are the ones worried about the fiscal cliff and the taxes going up. limited brands, victoria's secret, bath and body works, owner and operator. we have a significant jump with the victoria's secret fashion show airing in september. justin bieber is going to be involved.

16% so far this year, outperforming the broader market. analysts say that it is up there around 20 and hurricane sandy is estimated to put a dent into profits in the quarter. the williams-sonoma developing -- down 1% heading into the earnings. again, a specialty retailer, sometimes it's really tough and a hard retail environment. but the stock is up 18%. they have had a really good run of it. this one will be a good test of the overall consumer out there. tracy: i'm still thinking about justin bieber singing at a victoria's secret fashion show. he's too young.

he needs a haircut. i'm so old, can't i can't even take it. sandra smith, thank you so much. he's like 12. up next, cisco systems moving higher today. reporting their first-quarter results. after the bell, coming up. countdown to the closing bell, liz claman will be speaking with john chambers. countdown to the closing bell is next. do not go anywhere. before copd...

i took my son fishing every year. we had a great spot, not ey to find, but worth it. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung funcon starting within five minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better. and that means...fish on! symbicort is for copd including chronic bnchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbirt may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, d some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. with copd, i thought i'd miss our family tradition. now symbicortignificantly improves my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. and that makes a difference in my breathing. today, we're ready for whatever swims our way. ask your doctor about symbicort. i got my first prescription free. or click to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication,

astrazeneca may be able to help. make sure the news keeps coming with thinkorswim by td ameritrade. use the news links breaking stories with possible breakout stocks, options with potential opportunity, futures and forex with in-depth analysis. it's an all-you-can-eat buffet for all things trading. thinkorswim by td ameritrade. it doesn't just deliver news. it's making news. trade commission free for 60 days, plus get up to $600 when you open an account. afternoon, everybody. i am liz claman. "countdown to the closing bell" starts right now. 12 top ceos have set down the white house to begin one of the most important meetings ever with president obama on the subject of how f